Game Marketing Tips, Analysis, and News

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Post-Halloween Scares

Here's one that will curl your hair... the development cost of Gran Turismo 5, revealed in this Autoweek interview to be an eye-popping $60 million. Let's see, even assuming a clear profit of $15 per game, they'd have to sell... an amazing amount before making a profit.

Now, it sure does look pretty, and there are supposed to be about 1,000 cars averaging 400,000 polygons apiece, and more than 70 tracks... but (just thinking out loud here) wouldn't it make more sense to do a small fraction of that amount, get it out the door in a year (instead of three or four), and charge $20? And then sell additional cars, tracks, and so forth? At least you'd know whether it was worth spending more on development before you spent $60 million.

Marketing can do a lot, but it's asking a bit much to rescue profitability when product development's left reasonable about three exits back.

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About Me

I'm a game designer, marketer, and writer. Best known as co-founder of Hero Games and co-designer of Champions, I've also designed other paper and electronic games, written and edited books, manuals, and articles, and marketed many products, from entertainment software to medical devices; I was Director of Marketing for TSR after its purchase by Wizards of the Coast. I live between the redwoods and the beach, not far from where my great-great grandfather jumped ship to enter the Gold Rush.